Today was a mad, crazy, busy day. We were inspired by Monica's big girly beading day last week where she invited a big group of her daughters friends around to her house all on the same day to use up all the beads in her craft cupboard and have lots of play dates all condensed into one day. We talked about how if just 5 families did something similar once each during the two week holiday then the kids would have a full days free entertainment every second day.

And so (in the hope of inspiring a tradition) we sent out an email to 6 families we knew and invited their girls to a massive cup-cake making extravaganza!

All we asked them to bring was one packet of cake mix per family and we would provide the eggs, butter and milk to complete the ingredients. It worked brilliantly. We had a great assortment of flavours of cake, coloured cup-cake cases, sprinkles etc.

In the end there were 13 very excited kids in the kitchen cracking eggs, mixing with wooden spoons and electric whisks, filling paper cases with dripping spoons of chocolate and vanilla mixture.

I think we will be looking at the splashes of double choc fudge on the ceiling for many a year to come after one enthusiastic little girl who will remain nameless got a bit carried away with the electric whisk!

It was fantastic to see the older (11+12yrs old) girls helping the younger (6-9yrs) ones. They were like little mother hens helping to crack eggs and read instructions on the backs of the packets. There were a lot of fingers being dipped in the bowls and licking of whisks and spoons!

As the cakes went in and out of the oven like a factory production line the kids carried their mixing bowls to the sink and without being asked started washing them. Their manners were amazing, I wanted to ring all the mums and ask if my kids behave so amazingly when they go visiting at their houses? Maybe we should all swap kids for a bit!

The kids ran off to play and I did a blitz of the kitchen then called them back to a table with loaves of bread and cheese, ham, peanut butter etc. They all made their own sandwiches and ran off again while I divided the 149 cupcakes between 13 plates with their names written on with permanent marker (which luckily came off with some elbow grease later!)

When I called them back to the table there was chaos as they jostled and shouted to be passed the pink icing, or the green, or the chocolate, the dino sprinkles, flower shaped ones, pink sugar crystals... I left them at it and the end result was very colourful! They tucked into some of their cakes in the garden and then brought the rest home with them for later.

It was a really good day. A bit crazy at times but very good fun. My feet were sticking to the kitchen floor after they left and I had sprinkles crunching under my feet at every step. I've scrubbed the floor now and am sitting back with a cup of tea tired but content and grinning at the splodges of double choc chip on my ceiling that will remind me of today for a long time to come because I know I can't be ar*** to clean it anytime soon!